@sistem. Thanks for reading. I hope you will find that leasing has long term benefits for you.

I’m also not sure when a dolphin turns into a whale. Maybe it’s at 100k steempower, maybe even more.

It is true that many people don’t have 90 steem to lease 5000. For 9 steem they could try leasing 500. As you said, people started chasing you even for 300!

If you lease and only vote your own blogs and comments, you might make a small profit, or a small loss. The price is at the level where it’s not quite worth the trouble for the money making motive. The biggest variable is the amount of curation rewards.

On the other hand, by giving away your votes to others may make a profit because some will vote you or your comments. It all depends on whether you catch some bigger votes. The real value is in the advertisement effect. Once people follow you, their future votes are probably worth much more than you paid for the lease.

It is always good to discuss. Some whale bloggers don’t fully engage. I don’t think there would be much point in voting for that kind of blogger except to get a share of the curation rewards. On the other hand, many of their followers are commenting in the hope of getting a vote, so maybe it those people I would look at.

Renewing means your lease just carries in the same as before. You have to pay another fee. But you don’t lose the steem power. It saves the trouble of getting listed again and waiting for a taker.